Stormwalker series
The Stormwalker series by Allyson James. Genres and Sub-Genres Urban Fantasy, UF-PNR Series Description or Overview Half-Navajo Janet Begay possesses extraordinary power that is tied to the storms that waft across the desert. The only person who can control her when she's caught in the storm's evocative power is Mick, a dark-haired, blue-eyed biker Janet can't seem to touch with her powers. He can and not get burned, and Janet's never sure where he goes when they're not together. Together she and Mick investigate mysterious disappearances, which Janet fears are tied to her mother's people, the mythical gods from beneath the earth. They are helped along the way by Coyote and Crow, but these shapeshifting gods have their own agendas. ~ Stormwalker Series - Allyson James Lead's Species *Stormwalker (pulls electrical energy from storms) Primary Supe *Gods, shifters, magic users (Dragons ar prominant) What Sets it Apart * Narrative Type and Narrators *First person narrative told by Janet Begay, protagonist. Books in Series Stormwalker series: # Stormwalker (2010) # Firewalker (2010) # Shadow Walker (2011) # Nightwalker (2012) # Dreamwalker (June 2015) Shorts, Anthologies * 0.5. "A Little Night Magic" in Hot for the Holidays (PNR) (2009) * 2.5. "Double Hexed" in Hexed (2011) — (Janet Begay) World Building Fang-tastic Fiction: Allyson James: STORMWALKER Setting Magellan, Arizona: a fictitious desert town—high-desert town where the paranormal is normal. Places: * Beneath: The previous shell world from which mankind and certain gods emerged. Those gods who got trapped below are pretty pissed off. * Many Farms: Navajo reservation where Janet grew up * Crossroads Hotel: Janet's hotel * Paradox: Store which sells crystals, tarot cards, incense, and other accoutrements for magic working. * Homol'ovi, Arizona: The site of settlements dating back about eighteen hundred years, the large aboveground pueblos being built during the twelve hundreds. * Whiteriver, Arizona: Lies in the heart of Apache country * Crossroads Bar * S.J. Ranch: Owned by Samuel * Hansen's Garden Center: The town's plant nursery Cities, states, countries, regions: * Flat Mesa, Arizona * Tucson, Arizona * Flagstaff, Arizona * Sedona, Arizona * Whiteriver, Arizona: Lies in the heart of Apache country * Lake Powell, Arizona * Winslow, Arizona * Holbrook, Arizona * Fremont * Beaumont * Canyon de Chelly * Mogollon Rim * White River * Area 51 * Chaco Canyon * Spider Rock * Albuquerque, New Mexico * Santa Fe, New Mexico * Death Valley, California * San Francisco Peaks * Las Vegas, Nevada * New York, New York: "Manhattan" * Seattle, Washington * Chevelon Canyon world settings: * Pacific Islands * Baghdad, Iraq * Mexico * Molokai, Hawaii Supernatural Elements Stormwalkers, Vampire, dragon-shifter, witch, null, gods, shape-shifting coyote trickster, shaman, skin walkers, vampire slayers, Monsters, shapeshifters, bi-magical mirror, vortexes, skeletal-hand pictographs, Crow Woman, fire wielder, weather power, 'Glossary': * Stormwalkers: Beings that can absorb the elemental might of a storm and use it to fuel their own magic * Nightwalkers: Vampires * Firewalkers: Dragons; Beings that can summon and control fire * Dragons: Born of this earth in volcanoes, storms, and deep oceans, their number dwindled after the emergence of mankind. They consider themselves the guardians of the earth. * Vortexes: magical gateways that connect the human world with the mystical world of the Beneath—Swirls of mystical energy that collect in certain places in the desert. Some are gateways to Beneath. * Beneath: Hell-like world filled with angry gods and spirits who want out * Skin Walkers: Evil beings who can take the shape of animals or humans they've killed. (The bad shape shifters.) — ugly rotting things that ca take the skin of a human or animal, but in the Beneath look like angels. * Coyote: Native American trickster god * Changers: Shape shifters descended from shamans who twined with animal spirits and learned to take their shapes. (The good shape shifters.) * Unbelievers: Those who live in and around Magellan and don't believe in the paranormal. * Shadow Walkers: A witch who wears her magic like shadows. Is strong and nasty. * Koshare: A Hopi spirit who watches over Indian land—They appear with the Hopi kachina dancers, who dress in elaborate costumes to act the parts of gods and spirits, except the Koshare aren't technically kachinas because they don't wear masks. Koshares are the clowns of the group, there to make people laugh but also to provide admonition on bad behavior through their jokes and antics. * Kachinas: Hopi spirits, who are not always friendly * Karmii: They are like harbingers. They point the way to evil. When the karmii find evil, they multiply and gather in hordes to try to smother said evil. They look like thin lines that end in bony digits. They are mindless. Primal, created by shamans using ancient spells that never faded. The karmii were to protect the shaman from evil spirits while he performed his rituals. * Slayers: Bounty hunters who kill Nightwalkers. * Ununculous: A sorcerer who is a master of the blackest arts; The best sorcerer/practitioner in the world, of the darkest magics; There is never more than one at a time. * Mundanes: Non-magical people * Crow Woman: Groups & Organizations: * High Council of Dragons: A triumvirate who enforce dragon law—the 3 dragons who make the decisions for the dragon population, including trials. * Hopi County Sheriff's Department: * Navajo Nation: * Snowflake Police Department: * Diné Nation: * Zuni Nation: * Pueblo Nation: * Acoma Nation: World ✥ Stormwalker is an urban fantasy series that is more rural than urban. Janet Begay is a twenty-something Navajo stormwalker. She can pull power (i.e., electrical energy) from storms and use it as an aid or a weapon. Unfortunately, Janet can't always control the immense amounts of power that come from the most violent storms. ~ Fang-tastic ✥ There are layers of worlds. The Beneath is a world below are own that has been “locked” away so that the creatures of the Beneath can't take over Earth. There's skin walkers which are always fun to learn about in Native American legends. In this case they are ugly rotting things that can take the skin of a human or animal, but in the Beneath look like angels. Lecherous magic mirrors are also featured in this read. Coyote is also featured in here with a great rendition of what he would look and act like. (Coyote is a Native American god, there's lots a legends about him.) That's just a tip of some of the magical things. Janet is the key to opening up this door and bringing on the take over. Janet's mother is basically a goddess in the Beneath and has been working for years, maybe centuries, to get into earth. Wicked mothers have always been a favorite of mine for evil villains, and this one is evil to the bone. The way wicked mother goes about making a key to earth is really chilling and gave the mystery to the book a little edge, and twist on the dark side that I love. ~ Goodreads | Reader Review Protagonists ✥ Janet Begay: She is a Stormwalker with Beneath magic and a professional photographer—Half-Navajo raised on the Navajo Nation and, born of mortal Dine parents but her mother is a goddess from Beneath. Janet can draw the power of storms to feed her formidable latent magic. Without a storm, she's pretty powerless. Storm power makes her crazy, and only Mick can ease her down. Janet is a smart, magically powerful, angst-filled loner, and her boyfriend is an even more powerful, über-alpha dragon. Janet has the typical UF "missing magical Mom" syndrome, but her childhood was actually quite happy because of her quietly loving father and her blunt, magically talented grandmother. She is owner of the Crossroads Hotel; has long black hair and dark eyes that can turn ice green. ~ Shelfari & Fang-tastic ✥ Mick Burns: "Micalerianicum", alpha dragon-shifter & fire-weilder; Janet's inked biker bad boy boyfriend— Wields powerful fire magic and can draw off Janet's storm powers with his sensual touch; Is a dragon lord; Is 6'6" of honed muscle; Has curly black hair and blue eyes that can turn black; Turns into a giant black beast with black and silver eyes and a wingspan that rivals a 747's; As a human, his dragon essence is contained in the dragon tattoos that wind down his bare arms and in the fire tattoo that stretches across the small of his back. Mysterious man who helped Janet understand and control her powers when they first met, but they broke up five years earlier after he began disappearing for days at a time without telling her where he was. Mick is a fire-wielder—and more. ~ Shelfari ✥ Friends: Nash Jones (who is magically null); his volatile girlfriend, Maya; and Coyote, the trickster god who seems to always show up just in the nick of time. We also have some humorous moments with Janet's sarcastic, sex-crazed magic mirror. Each book builds on the action in the previous books, so you need to start at the beginning. ✥ Nash Jones: a magic null; Sheriff of Hopi County; Ex-Army Special Forces; Iraq War vet (Suffers from PTSD); —Maya's on again, off again boyfriend; Until recently was an Unbeliever and not fond of people who claimed to use magic; A stickler for rules and regs, and might possess the most potent magic of all; Has very short black hair and light gray eyes; Is a magic null Here's a quotation that explains Nash's relationship with magic, which is an important part of the plot in both Stormwalker and Shadow Walker: :"Nash himself was some kind of magic void—which meant that his body somehow negated all magic thrown his way, even the most powerful stuff." (Shadow Walker, p. 6) ~ Fang-tastic and Shelfari Author Allyson James * Website: Allyson James Official Website * Genres: Romantic Urban Fantasy, PNR, Romantic Mystery, Regency Romance * Pen Names: Jennifer Ashley, Ashley Gardner Bio: I've been a little quiet on the Allyson James front, because I've been hugely busy writing books for my Jennifer Ashley and Ashley Gardner personas. However, once I get those beaten into shape, I'm returning to Allyson James with more Shareem (the re-release of Eland very soon), and more Stormwalker. I'm debating the name of the next Stormwalker book, but I think it will be Dreamwalker. ~ Goodreads | Allyson James Book Cover Blurbs ✥ BOOK ONE—Stormwalker (): Half-Navajo Janet Begay possesses extraordinary power which is tied to the storms that waft across the desert. The only person who can control her when she's caught in the storm's evocative power is Mick, a dark-haired, blue-eyed biker Janet can't seem to touch with her powers. He can wield fire and not get burned, and Janet's never sure where he goes when they're not together. Together they investigate mysterious disappearances, which Janet fears are tied to her mother's people, the mythical gods from below the earth. They are helped along the way by Coyote and Crow, but these shapeshifting gods have their own agendas. ~ Goodreads | Stormwalker ✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—Firewalker (): Janet Begay's Crossroads Hotel has attracted the supernatural from the day it opened. Witches, Changers, and a mouthy magic mirror have decided to make it their home. But a new, dark power is rising—this time inside Janet herself. Her boyfriend, Mick, a sexy dragon shape-shifter the Navajo call a Firewalker, knows what terrifying magic is threatening to overwhelm Janet and her Stormwalker powers. He watches over her, ready to fight for her, to do anything to keep her safe. But then a mysterious corpse is found near the Crossroads Hotel—and Janet becomes Sheriff Nash Jones' main suspect. Trouble is, even she can't be sure she didn't do it. Now Janet and Mick must uncover what really happened, and their investigation leads to the most perilous decision of their lives: Mick must choose between protecting his own people or guarding Janet, the woman he loves, from the many forces amassing against her. ~ Goodreads | Firewalker (Stormwalker, #2) ✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Shadow Walker (): Winter descends on the town of Magellan, and new evil comes to call. Racing her motorcycle down a lonely winter highway, Stormwalker Janet Begay feels the ground collapse beneath her feet. After tumbling two hundred feet into an underground cavern, she manages to escape with help from her sexy dragon-shifter boyfriend, Mick—but not before they disturb some dark forces. As Janet contends with a hotel inspector intent on putting her out of business, as well as her grandmother, who's taken up residence, Mick's behavior becomes strange and erratic, until he is a clear danger to Janet and her friends. Janet's drag-queen, attitude-ridden magic mirror insists that Mick has been touched by shadows, and the Stormwalker realizes that someone is out to enslave her dragon. Now she must free Mick before he kills her. Goodreads | Shadow Walker (Stormwalker, #3) ✤ BOOK FOUR BLURB—Nightwalker (): Stormwalker Janet Begay, proprietor of the Crossroads Hotel, a place where the paranormal stop for a safe night’s rest, discovers the hard way that a slayer is targeting Ansel, a Nightwalker who’s become the hotel's more-or-less permanent resident. When Janet and her lover Mick intervene to save Ansel’s un-life, they find that the attack is the beginning of an oncoming storm. Janet has her hands full already with the upcoming marriage of her father, the return of a woman who claims to be Coyote’s wife, her crazy half-sister, a couple dragons on her back, and her worry about Mick, who’s behaving strangely again. But it seems that everyone is after Ansel, who fears he killed the woman he loves in a Nightwalker frenzy. Janet must choose between protecting Ansel, or facing the most powerful magical beings in the world, who are willing to destroy Janet, Mick, her hotel, and everyone she cares about to get to Ansel and his secrets. Goodreads | Nightwalker (Stormwalker, #4) ✤ BOOK FIVE BLURB—Dreamwalker (2015): Janet has her hands full trying to keep her crazy little sister under control and deal with the return of a powerful mage, who is ready to take all she has, including her fire-wielding lover, Mick. Goodreads | Dreamwalker (Stormwalker, #5) Category:Series